Friday, January 6, 2012

Star Wars The Old Republic First Impressions/ Semi Review

Yes people it is finally over, Star Wars The Old Republic or SWTOR is finally here and as you can imagine I am hooked. The reason you will see this in three categories is simple it is something I like so it goes into my corner, it is almost a review of sorts, and it is a preview for all who want to play the game. Now let's get this out of the way first, the similarities to a certain panda game. SWTOR is a MMO of course its going to borrow from Pandaria, Pandaria borrow from every other mmo that came before it. Both games have respective audiences and while I tend to favour SWTOR I will in no means bad mouth Pandaria, the only thing that will kill that game is time as I have heard mention before.

This is a Star Wars game right to its core, from the atmosphere to the awesome scrolling text we are all accustomed to this is by far the best and biggest Star Wars game to date. The music is incredible, the voice acting sounds great, and while this is a mmo and the quest are generally the same it's still fun and enjoyable to do it in a Star Wars game done right (Galaxies in my opinion was a fail). You start off by choosing your side of the conflict: Republic or Empire, then you are taken to choose from one of four classes that once you reach the appropriate level get to choose a advance class. The advance class is permanent so choose wisely, but if you don't like a certain skill tree your in you can go back and start from scratch. Anyway once you get the class you want you go into the player customizer, which is good. Though I was a little let down at how few races there were but I am sure as new content is made available new races will join the fray. I would also like to see the body types expanded a little more, so far there are only four types but it's not too big of a deal.

Once you that's done you are thrust into the story for your class, though I have created a character for all classes just to play around I found myself growing fond of the Sith Warrior. Now not too spoiling anything but his or her story is quiet enjoyable and the people you meet and or slaughter are all intriguing. This character made me feel that I was truly on the dark path. The other thing to note that I find to be great is the addition of companions, these guys/gals can accompany you on your adventures and act as one of a few roles, plus like past Bioware games each have detailed back stories and missions you need to complete in order to gain favour with them. Some are romancable and others are just down right hilarious, but they add another layer to this experience that won't be found on any other MMO. As of right now I'm running a level 36 SW Juggernaut in the vengeance tree which gives me power and survivability this is my main. Of course however this is your game and you can play what ever way you prefer, if you want to be a hybrid then go ahead no one is stopping you. I have yet to try pvp which I am leaving till I get to 50 which should be fairly soon. I have done a few flash points ad other group things which are actually quite fun. For the hardcore mmo fan I think this game is great and while it doesn't have everything yet, you can expect it too as Bioware has stated that they want it to never be taken down or killed like some other MMO in the past. The other thing to note is how well this game does in the Asian markets and the other markets slated for release. Blizzards success was that it found a foothold in the Asian markets, even if SWTOR finds a good step in those enormous markets you can expect to see this game live long and let's be honest here this game will live for a long while.

Now for every awesome time I had, there were a few bugs nothing game breaking but some that need and probably be tackled in the near future. Some of the glitching and getting stuck in objects need to be fix but the one I always find to be the most annoying is the lag issue when going through space ports. Now I know for a fact its not my hardware as I run this game really well every other area. Now if you look at the forums you will see a ton of complaints and hate on the game. I have not experience any other things that these people complain about maybe there present and maybe there not I won't know until I see first hand. Unfortunately the forums are also filled with what we like to refer as Trolls for a said game that I will not mention in this post. These people are no lifers who think by spamming "why you should unsub" they think they can undermine a game so there preciouses could continue on for another 100 years is childish. Nobody cares about these people and they will file out eventually.

In closing I think SWTOR is off to a great start, the game is great and I will continue to enjoy it until I can't any more.

9/10

+Dialouge is great
+Music is great
+Combat feels good
+Large open spaces to roam
+Loads of quest's
-It's a MMO you'll need lots of time
-Time Killer
-Some bugs
-Trolls
-Some game lag